1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a freehand input method capable of inputting in an input region on a display screen of computer in handwriting by use of a pen-type input device such as a stylus pen and a pen-type tablet or a pointing device such as a mouse, a freehand input device for achieving such method and a computer program product for achieving general purpose computers as such device.
2. Description of Related Art
Many freehand input devices for inputting freehand characters on the display screen of computer by use of a pen-type input device such as a stylus pen and a pen-type tablet have been developed. To distinguish handwriting input from command input, many conventional freehand input devices has a configuration of switching an input mode, for example, by selection of a button. Thus, in such conventional freehand input devices, when handwriting on the display screen is deleted, it is necessary to select a button for executing a command to perform switching to a deletion mode and then make an operation such as moving a pen on a handwriting input to be deleted. That is, in the conventional freehand input devices, when handwriting on the display screen is deleted, operations in two steps are necessary. Furthermore, in the conventional freehand input devices, a button region in which buttons such as the above-mentioned button are disposed, is generally provided at an end or peripheral portion of the screen. For this reason, when handwriting input is made at a region remote from the button region, to select a button to execute a command, a pen inconveniently needs to be moved largely.
In consideration of the above-mentioned circumstances, according to a known method, when handwriting input which meets a predetermined condition is accepted, by deciding that handwriting input is gesture input, not handwriting input and executing a command stored in accordance to the inputted gesture, handwriting input can be distinguished from command input without switching the input mode by the user. According to this method, however, handwriting which meets a predetermined condition for deciding as gesture input cannot be input as normal handwriting. Accordingly, even when the user wants to input as handwriting, not gesture, the input can be possibly decided as gesture input despite the user's intent and thus, handwriting input intended by the user cannot be made. Therefore, a method capable of distinguishing handwriting input from gesture input according to the user's intent is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 08-006706 (1996).
According to the method disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 08-006706(1996), when handwriting input made by the user meets a predetermined condition, the handwriting input is deleted and decided as gesture. A predetermined sign stored in accordance to the decided gesture is displayed. However, when the predetermined sign thus displayed is not selected by the user, handwriting input already deleted is displayed again.
However, in the above-mentioned freehand input device, it is decided whether or not the input is handwriting input at the time when inputting is completed. Thus, since the user cannot confirm whether handwriting input is decided as handwriting input or gesture input until inputting is completed, there is a possibility that the input is decided as gesture input despite the user's intent. For example, in the case where the device is configured so as to decide that the input is gesture input when a filling region is detected, there is a possibility that the filling region which can be decided as filling region by the device cannot be inputted in freehand sufficiently. In such case, there is a possibility that the input is not decided as gesture input and the device accepts handwriting during filling input as handwriting input. To allow the device to certainly decide the input as gesture input, the user must make filling input more than necessary and thus, it is difficult to make handwriting input according to the user's intent.